Once I recover the photos I’ll review the location at another time, but this wacky choice was discovered at Namjatown, a Tokyo-based food/carnival game/I have no flippin’ idea-type of theme park brought to us by Namco (makers of Pac-Man and other arcade/video games). The ice cream hails from Miyagi prefecture (宮城県; north of Tokyo), and at least viper, known as mamushi in Japanese, is listed as an ingredient before other ingredients (in other words, there may be a higher percentage of viper in here) such as almonds and garlic. My taste buds were fully aware of three parts-garlic, a bit of almond, but the third stand-out, well, I’ve never had viper before in any form (solid and liquid included) so that must’ve been it. If you’re interested in reaching for the squamata, prepare yourself for garlic, but only mention to others that it was viper. (Link thanks to the University of Georgia) Don’t think of Japan as the only country in East Asia that respects zoology though. No matter what you can add chilies or black bean sauce to in Guangzhou, you can probably select from a freezer in Tokyo.

The next time you board a long-haul flight and get served ice cream, which “v” is it going to be?

side note: mamushi can also mean broiled eel mixed with rice, but if you looked carefully you’ll see that at the top of the lid lies a viper, drawn a bit too well for its big day.